How does a Fog Machine Work?
Hello Julie — Here is a link to a site called “how stuff works” They have a section about fog machines. http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/q…
it’s not smoke… smoke involves a fire… There are three common ways to produce the fog that you often see in stage productions and at dance clubs: 1. Use a fog machine that vaporizes “fog juice” 2. Use dry ice 3. Invite lots of cigarette smokers Fog machines and fog juice are the most common. The basic mechanism is simple — the fog juice is heated to create haze. When you overheat oil on the stove and create a lot of smoke, you are doing approximately the same thing. Cooking oil has a tendency to get gummy and smell bad, however. Fog machines use glycerin or glycol mixed with water.
A fog machine has four basic parts, and if we look at each component separately, we can better understand the operation of the entire machine. • Fog Fluid: Fog fluid, or fog juice, is comprised of water and a glycol or glycerine-based fluid. You’ll want to pour a specific amount of fog fluid into the machine where it will come under the power of the… • Pump: The pump provides the power and the noise for the machine. It simply forces the fog fluid in front of the… • Heat Exchanger: The heat exchanger is a metal block often made of aluminum. The fog fluid travels down a small path and over the heat source, and the intense heat quickly evaporates the fluid in a process called flashing. Flashing causes the fluid (now evaporated) to expand, which in turn increases the pressure in the machine, forcing the fog fluid out of the… • Exit Nozzle: As soon as the evaporated fog fluid exits this nozzle and touches the cool air, it reforms into a thick fog. You direct this entire process via a fifth
A – This is the most FA’d fog-related FAQ I can think of and I’ve answered it already in other articles but since the answers to many other questions require some knowledge of how a fogger does its job, let’s go through it again, briefly. A fog machine has three main components, a fluid tank, a fluid pump and a heat exchanger. Once the heat exchanger has reached a temperature of around 400ºF, the fluid pump pulls fluid from the tank and squirts it into the heat exchanger. The water in the fog fluid “flashes” into steam and rapidly expands, filling the heat exchanger and escaping from a small nozzle on the front of the unit. When the vapor hits the relatively cooler air outside of the fogger, it forms a thick, opaque cloud of “fog.
